Used price: $23.50
Collectible price: $72.20
Used price: $14.75
Despite my general admiration for the Founding Fathers, George Washington is not a figure of whom I would have contemplated reading a multi-volume biography, at least not until I had already done the same for Jefferson and Madison, to whom I feel much closer in temperament, and had plenty of time to spare. I thought Richard Brookhiser's informative but unexceptional biography of him (*Founding Father: Rediscovering George Washington*) contained everything I would ever want to know about the man.
But then, while reading Kenneth Roberts' literary autobiography, *I Wanted to Write*, I came across the following remark, extracted from the August 22, 1931 entry of his diary: "Read from 9 p.m. to 3 a.m. in Volume 2 of Rupert Hughes's *George Washington*- history at its best and most brilliant."
Given the scantiness of Roberts' praise of historians, and my own steady admiration for him, this was enough to make me order the three volumes of Hughes' biography right away.
It is composed of three volumes, covering the first five decades of Washington's life and leaving out the last two, which include his presidency. They are titled respectively: "The Human Being and the Hero, 1732-1762", "The Rebel and the Patriot 1762-1777" and "The Savior of the States 1777-1781". So far, I have only read Volume 1, but it is enough to make me second Roberts' verdict about the book: not only is it well-researched and reliable, but it goes beyond those virtues of small books and rises to the level of great literature, rich with the kind of wisdom that makes you feel you are going to return to it again and again for more than just facts.
Hughes himself was a friend of Roberts. They first met at MI-4 during World War I. As Roberts writes in his autobiography: "It was my great good fortune to have as a commanding officer Major Rupert Hughes... If Major Hughes could have been given as free a hand with Military Intelligence as General Donovan was later given with O.S.S., the United States would long ago have had a genuine Intelligence Section." One also learns that at that time, Hughes was deaf, the father of two children, and "working furiously on galley proofs of a novel." Later on, he introduced Roberts to the man who would become his lifelong best friend, Booth Tarkington, and helped him out with his historical novels of the Revolutionary War by lending him volumes from his own well-endowed library.
Actually, Hughes has authored exactly the same kind of biography of Washington that Roberts would have written had ever ventured into this area, hence the latter's admiration: like Roberts in *Trending Into Maine* or *The Battle of Cowpens*, Hughes often prefers to let source documents speak for themselves; he has a writer's eye for the telling detail, for factual consistency and for the complexity of the human soul; and he is particularly brilliant at debunking myths and rescuing the truth from a jungle of misapprehensions and outright fabrications.
I was also particularly seduced by his personal philosophy, the benevolence of which is evinced by his view of business and money-making. But for its ambivalence, the following passage would sound almost Randian: "It has been overlong the custom to assume that epic poetry flies out of the window the moment business comes in at the door. We should realize the truer truth that all great business men and business triumphs have been, when understood, epic in virtues, epic in sins, aglow with poetic imaginations both of horror and beauty, tragedy and triumph."
Hughes' biography of Washington is a brilliant portrait of a multi-faceted man - military commander, land speculator, slave owner, lover and bon vivant. In addition to its richly detailed depictions of military life and military campaigns, it contains a very enlightening annex about Washington's religious fervour (or lack thereof) and a haunting treatment of his enduring passion for Sally Fairfax, the married woman he was more ardently in love with than he ever was with his own wife.
Used price: $21.80
Used price: $103.54
Buy one from zShops for: $103.54
Used price: $2.99
Collectible price: $6.31
Buy one from zShops for: $4.09
Used price: $15.49
Used price: $8.39
Collectible price: $8.47
Used price: $14.80
Collectible price: $23.29
Used price: $2.77
Buy one from zShops for: $2.47
Used price: $10.00